Tuesday, March 02, 2010

PUTTING A FACE ON THINGS


The other morning, TLW (The Little Woman) had some steaks in the refrigerator for dinner that night. She instructed me (doesn’t she always?) to take the extras she purchased and put them in the freezer. That is something I would ordinarily do.

“Of course dear, don’t I always? I see your face in front of me and I know what to do.”

Indeed I do, I picture her in front of me, telling me what to do. This got me to thinking about years gone by, before I married into servitude, and was still young.

When I was in junior high school, I was learning about the three branches of the federal government. The executive, legislative and judicial branches of government seemed strangely familiar to me! I wondered why, them it occurred to me that very day when I got home from school. Mom, who I thought was a dictator, was actually being very democratic in her outlook on how to raise children! She acted as both President, and Congress, thinking of ways to raise us, enacted laws, which Dad made sure we followed to the letter.

Whenever temptation arose, and the chance to be bad occurred, I would somehow see my mother’s face, pointedly looking at me, with the threat of dear old Dad, ready to pounce on me for any infraction.

I must say, even Dad’s face would be staring at me, ready to explode so to speak, so I tried to stay on the straight and narrow path, which led to my becoming a pathetic wimp of a husband.

TLW has other means to keep control of my exuberance. Not one to fight, she has used reason all these years, and did so with her unreasonable husband. A mastermind of psychological marital warfare, she wins time after time.

It is called: “Sweet surrender.”

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